NHRA to hold four-wide drag races this weekend

For the first time in the history of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will hold an entire event – qualifying and eliminations – using four lanes instead of the traditional two.

The inaugural and history-making event, billed as the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, will be held this weekend at zMax Dragway in Concord N.C. The event will mark the first of two events of this kind that will be held this season at zMax Dragway, a dragstrip featuring four all-concrete lanes for racing. The historic race will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD.

Photo courtesy of NHRA

Drivers in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel division will be racing four-wide this weekend at the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C.

“We’re going four wide. Wow,” said Top Fuel dragster driver Antron Brown in a news release to the media. “We experienced it already last year and we made a good showing in the four-wide exhibition even though we didn’t have the results we were looking for during the regular race.”

In the Top Fuel division, seven-time defending world champ Tony Schumacher enters the race with a 11-point lead in the standings over Cory McClenathan, driver of the FRAM dragster. Schumacher’s arch-rival, Larry Dixon of Al-Anabi Racing is ranked third and will no doubt be a threat to Schumacher.

In the Nitro Funny Car class, John Force enters the race with a 54-point lead over Ron Capps. The 60-year old Force opened the season winning the 50th annual Winternationals in Pomona, California and a win this weekend would pad his points lead going into the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in three weeks.

Photo courtesy of NHRA

Drivers in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car division will be racing four-wide this weekend at the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C.

“It’s going to be exciting,” said Force, who is a 14-time Funny Car world champion. “You’re talking over 30,000 horsepower at one time. You’re talking over 1,200 mph out there on that racetrack.”

In the Pro Stock division, Mike Edwards continues to dominate the class. He enters the race with a 132-point lead over Allen Johnson. Edwards has two victories, a runner-up finish and three No. 1 qualifying performances in three races this season. He is the defending series champion in his class.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle division, Eddie Krawiec enters the race with a 25-point lead over Shawn Gann after Krawiec won the season opener at the Gatornationals two weeks ago in Florida. Krawiec won the world championship in 2008 and is hoping to put his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson back in victory lane again this weekend.

The following are rules for the Four-wide breakdown and how the NHRA will conduct the event:

Lanes will be identified from left to right facing downtrack as 1-4; Qualifying sessions and elimination rounds will be conducted using all four lanes; The standard Friday qualifying procedure of a top 12 format will not be in use at this event; Two Christmas trees will be in use, one between each two lanes; The Compulink Autostart system will continue to be utilized and it will not activate until all four vehicles are pre-staged and one vehicle has staged; The ladder structure will feature Race A: qualifiers 1, 8, 9, 16, Race B: qualifiers 4, 5, 12, 13, Race C: qualifiers 2, 7, 10, 15, and Race D: qualifiers 3, 6, 11, 14… Race A and Race B will be on one side of the ladder, while Race C and Race D will be on the other; Lane choice for eliminations goes to the driver with the quickest E.T., then the second-quickest, and so on; The first two drivers in each elimination round to cross the finish line advance to the second round and final; In the final round, teams will finish in the order they cross the finish line (barring any red-light starts).

NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the third of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series: